Retention of affective material: Effects of intensity of affect on retrieval.

Abstract

Studied the nature of perceived intensity of affective items and their retrieval in 2 experiments with 120 undergraduates each. The effects of high and low emotional involvement induced at the time of registration and the introduction of information meant to reverse the context of S's emotional involvement after registration and before retrieval were assessed. In the 3rd experiment with 45 Ss, the emotionally involving context was introduced following the registration of items in a neutral context. Results indicate that changes in the emotional involvement, introduced after registration but before retrieval, produced systematic changes in the perceived intensity of affect, which in turn influenced the patterns of recall. Thus, emotional involvement not only affects registration of materials but also retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)